LEADERSHIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

I can't recall a time when leadership has been under so much detailed and intense scrutiny - political leadership, business leadership, religious leadership, media leadership, police leadership, in fact just about any leadership past and present. It might have something to do with the social media microscope with its whiplash-fast means of communication to praise or destroy characters and reputations in a heartbeat. Both serious and necessary analysis of decision-makers and gossipy, sarcastic nit-picking join death and taxes as inevitable parts of life these days.

I know a bit about leadership from my forty years as a manager, starting in the low ranks and steadily moving into the middle and almost senior management orbit. I did some good things and I made mistakes. I made good decisions and bad decisions but hopefully the good outweighed the bad. In management, I've found that you learn as you go. You learn by experience how to deal with certain recurring challenges and you weigh up how to handle surprises and the unexpected. Sometimes you're on a sure footing and other times you choose your route and take responsibility and the consequences.

In my forty years, rather neatly but honestly, I have had forty bosses. I have learned from all of them and not always in a good way.  I have been tinkering with an idea for a book - Career-View Mirror: 40 Bosses In 40 Years - but I haven't spent too much time on it lately.

However, as part of the idea, I listed my bosses, not by name or chronology, in one word summaries of how I remember them. The simple point is that all bosses are different in personality and behaviour but it is competence and delivering the role properly and professionally that counts.

I have worked for a couple of brilliant leaders, some good ones, too many average ones and a handful of idiots.

Here are the words I attribute to my past gaffers:

BOSS 1 - AMBITIOUS

BOSS 2 - BRUISER

BOSS 3 - BULLISH

BOSS 4 - CONSISTENT

BOSS 5 - DRIVER

BOSS 6 - EAGER

BOSS 7 - EGOTISTIC

BOSS 8 - ERRATIC

BOSS 9 - FREEWHEELER

BOSS 10 - FRIENDLY

BOSS 11 - FOCUSED

BOSS 12 – FUSSY

BOSS 13 – GRITTY

BOSS 14 – GROUNDED

BOSS 15 – HAUGHTY

BOSS 16 – HUMANE

BOSS 17 – HUMBLE

BOSS 18 – HYPOCRITE

BOSS 19 – INCONSEQUENTIAL

BOSS 20 - LAZY

BOSS 21 - METHODICAL

BOSS 22 – MILITARY

BOSS 23 – PATIENT

BOSS 24 – PURITAN

BOSS 25 – RANTER

BOSS 26 – REAL

BOSS 27 – REBELLIOUS

BOSS 28 – RUFFIAN

BOSS 29 – SCRUPULOUS

BOSS 30 - SELFISH

BOSS 31 - SINCERE

BOSS 32 – SMUG

BOSS 33 – SNEAKY

BOSS 34 – SNOB

BOSS 35 – SOFT

BOSS 36 – SUPERIOR

BOSS 37 – TENACIOUS

BOSS 38 - UNCERTAIN

BOSS 39 - UPSTART

BOSS 40 – VETERAN

The business writer Peter Drucker nailed it when he said: "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things."